Zen Browser Keyboard Shortcuts

Open Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts, or visit about:preferences#zen-shortcuts. Click the field beside an action, press the new combination, then press Esc to save. A green outline means it saved; red means a conflict — press Backspace to clear it. Workspace 1–10 and Reset pinned tab to pinned URL have no defaults, so you assign those yourself. Firefox-only shortcuts that do not appear on this settings page cannot be remapped yet.

Zen's most important defaults use Ctrl+Alt (Compact Mode, Workspaces, Split View, floating sidebar). On Windows layouts with an AltGr key — German, Polish, UK, US-International, and many others — Ctrl+Alt is treated as AltGr and types a character instead of running the shortcut. Remap those actions to combos that do not use Ctrl+Alt, for example Ctrl+Shift, in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts. This is tracked as zen-browser/desktop issue 9127.

Ctrl+Alt+C on Windows and Linux, Option+Command+C on macOS. Ctrl+Alt+T / Option+Command+T toggles the floating toolbar, and Ctrl+Alt+S / Option+Command+S toggles the floating sidebar. In Compact Mode, enable Briefly make the toolbar popup when switching or opening new tabs under Settings > Look and Feel > Theme Settings so Ctrl+Tab still peeks at the tab strip.

Backward workspace is Ctrl+Alt+Q (Option+Command+Q on Mac). Forward workspace is Ctrl+Alt+E (Option+Command+E on Mac). Switch to Workspace 1–10 is not bound by default — assign those ten shortcuts in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts if you use numbered Spaces. Do not confuse these with Alt+1–8 / Command+1–8, which select tabs (including Essentials and pinned tabs), not Workspaces.

Select multiple tabs in the sidebar first, then Ctrl+Alt+H (horizontal), Ctrl+Alt+V (vertical), or Ctrl+Alt+G (grid) on Windows and Linux. On Mac those are Option+Command+H, V, and G. Ctrl+Alt+U / Option+Command+U unsplits all. Zen documents that Toggle Split View currently applies when selecting multiple sidebar tabs and does not work from inside an existing split.

Windows and Linux share the official table (Ctrl and Ctrl+Alt). On macOS, most Ctrl bindings become Command and most Ctrl+Alt Zen features become Option+Command. Exceptions matter: next/previous tab stays Ctrl+Tab because Command+Tab switches apps; Command+H hides the app so history uses Shift+Command+H; tab 1–8 uses Command+1–8, not Option+1–8; fullscreen is Control+Command+F, not F11.

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C on Windows and Linux, Option+Shift+Command+C on macOS, copies the current page as a Markdown link. Shift+Ctrl+C / Shift+Command+C copies the plain URL. Both are listed under Zen Features in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Yes. Zen is a Firefox fork, so new tab, find, bookmarks, DevTools, and most navigation keys match Firefox. Zen adds its own chords for Compact Mode, Workspaces, Split View, copy URL as Markdown, and the AI chatbot sidebar. Firefox shortcuts that do not appear in Zen's Keyboard Shortcuts settings cannot be remapped yet — report those on the Zen GitHub issues page. Mozilla's Firefox shortcut list is the reference for anything not in the Zen table.

Glance is Zen's in-place page preview. There is no dedicated default key in the official shortcut table. Open a preview with Alt+click (Option+click on Mac) on a link. With Glance open, Command+Enter (or the equivalent confirm key) expands the preview into a tab, and Escape dismisses it. Glance can also be toggled for context-menu search via zen.glance.enable-contextmenu-search in about:config.

On Windows and Linux, Alt+1 through Alt+8 select tabs by index and that index includes Essentials first, then pinned tabs, then regular tabs. Alt+9 jumps to the last tab, not tab 9. Example: three Essentials and four pinned tabs means Alt+8 is the first regular tab. On macOS use Command+1–8 and Command+9. Ctrl+Tab cycles tabs (Essentials, then pinned, then regular) and can be set to recently used order under Settings > General > Tabs.